PEPS Pentacut Laser with Laser 3D

Laser 3D, based in Melbourne, Australia, was established in 1992, supplying formed metal and plastic components predominantly to the automotive industry for clients, such as Ford, Toyota and GMH. During its rapid growth Laser 3D installed 13 laser cutting systems across two job shops, giving the ability to provide a broad range of laser cutting and welding services. With an expanding array of laser cutting machines for their increasing metal cutting requirements Laser 3D had to deal with the issue of programming them effectively.

Said Brian Finn, Managing Director; “We were looking for possible ways to improve our response time and accuracy for 5-axis laser cutting. Our initial programming on the LaserLab systems was by teaching. The production of fixtures was slow, and programs were not accurate enough and it wasted machine time. We subsequently selected PEPS Pentacut for the 5-axis programming as it was capable of programming both the LaserLab and Trumpf machines. Other systems we looked at either couldn’t program both machines or didn’t utilise circular interpolation in the NC code so the programs were very long and simple modifications to the program at the machine were not practical. PEPS also runs on low cost hardware.”

After installation there were huge time savings in the design and building of fixtures. Accuracy was also increased, however the biggest improvement was seen because of the way PEPS utilises circular interpolation and the machine’s built-in macros for holes, slots, etc. It can automatically identify and profile 3D component boundaries and apertures, and with appropriate technology settings. The programmer can use the system to automatically identify standard shapes supported by the postprocessor and output the NC code using the canned cycles of the machine tool - many jobs can be programmed in seconds. Collision checking further reduces the possibility of error, with a full simulation showing both head and pipe positions. Fixturing also saw a massive 80% time saving.

Every user has unique requirement, and therefore a system needs to be able to accommodate those needs. Commented Brian; “The system is really open to customisation. We have requested a modification to the post output and it was implemented within a few days. The support overall is excellent.”

There are ongoing plans to expand Laser 3D’s existing plant, and PEPS is an integral part of that plan. Brian concluded; “We can deliver finished products with a greater level of accuracy as cutting is performed using design data direct, substantially eliminating human factor. The major advantage of PEPS is that it allows us to run an existing job on any available 5-axis machine using correspondent machine geometry, configuration and postprocessor. Also, we are not tied to any one machine manufacturer in the future as the PEPS machine library covers practically all existing multi-axis laser cutting machines. We are now looking to use PEPS to drive our 2-axis laser machines too